Issue Story

Coronavirus and Small Business 

A look at how a sales oriented small business and a services oriented small business have been affected by the coronavirus lockdown

All types of small businesses have been affected by the coronavirus, from sales oriented producers making specialty items to small businesses specializing in financial services. 

Emily Junker is the founder of a small business based out of Washington, Illinois named Tik Tick Fizz. They make small specialty products such as bath bombs and candles by hand. “During the spring and summer, sales come from events where we would sell our products at and even create custom products on the spot for customers” she said. The events that they sell at include farmers markets, festivals, and they receive large orders for graduation parties, weddings, and baby showers. As the coronavirus has stopped all large gatherings like those mentioned, they have had to make a new way to go forward. She has had to move her sales completely online in the wake of the coronavirus. 

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“It has been tough with online sales as well, because we lose a lot of our bottom line with shipping,” she said. Junker had a website through which she received orders, but it was not used very often. To move sales online, she had to update the website a lot. Tick Tick Fizz has had to compete with large online retailers like Amazon as well and has lost a lot of profit. Shipping for small businesses such as Tick Tick Fizz is much more expensive than the free shipping that comes with Amazon Prime. 

While she has had some difficulties, Junker said that she has received amazing feedback online. She said, “I have received more shares, likes, comments, and reviews in the past month than any other month before.” However, the online support has not really helped her sales as she has experienced around a 50% sales decline from previous years at this time. Junker added that the way communities have risen up to support local and small businesses has been amazing and a major motivation for her. 

Kim Zimmerman is the founder and owner of Integrity Medical Billing Inc., a small business out of Carrollton Virginia. Zimmerman’s business was deemed essential as it performs financial services for doctors offices that could not close. However, they are still facing hardships of their own. 

Zimmerman explained, “If my customers, the doctors, don’t get paid, then I do not get paid as well and a lot of them have lost a significant amount of business and some have closed.” To ensure that she can keep all of her employees during this time, Zimmerman applied for the Small Business Associations Paycheck Protection Program Loan and was accepted. This program covers all of the businesses payroll. “I was very grateful to receive the loan, because without it I would have had to fire some of my employees,” she said. 

Other problems Zimmerman has been facing are things like social distancing and cleaning in the office. To ensure her employees stay safe while working, she has moved all desks to be at least 6-feet apart. A lot of the internal business is being done online now as well. “If there are any questions for any other employees or if there any of the employees need me or my office manager to verify something, we will either log remotely into the computer that the employee is working on or talk through it over the phone,” she said. 

Zimmerman said that a positive for the business during this time is that it has been able to clean up books and organize different things that they have been wanting to do. “Because we are a small business with only about 10 employees, we have not been able to do everything that we want during the regular business periods so we have been capitalizing and catching up on things we have fallen behind on,” she said. 

This trying time has affected all types of small businesses. Many have had to temporarily close or move online like Tick Tick Fizz did. The Chamber of Commerce reported that 24% of all small businesses have been temporarily closed while another 40% are expected to close within a two week period. However, 57% of small businesses are still reporting that they feel positive about their overall health and 23% expect to hire more employees within the year.

Both Tick Tick Fizz and Integrity Medical Billing Inc. are trying their best to come out okay and like the many others are focusing on what is to come after the pandemic ends. 

More statistics on small business can be found at https://www.uschamber.com/report/special-report-coronavirus-and-small-business